This invention relates generally to wind musical instruments of the type having a mouthpiece and an elongated resonating chamber operatively associated at one end with the mouthpiece, and has particular application to such an instrument wherein the effective length of the chamber, which controls the pitch of a musical note produced by the instrument, is selectively variable by the user continuously over the musical range of the instrument.
As is well known, the family of wind instruments includes the flute, saxophone, bassoon, clarinet, oboe and English horn, etc. Conventional instruments of this family provide a plurality of openings along the length of an elongated resonating chamber associated with the mouthpiece of the instrument, together with means by which the user can selectively close certain openings, in order thereby to adjust the effective length of the resonating chamber. In some instances, as in the case of a flute, the means for closing the openings may be the user's fingers; and in other instruments of the family, mechanical closure means are provided which may be digitally actuated by the user from open to closed positions, or from closed to open positions. In these instruments, the change of pitch from the actuation by the user of adjacent openings is necessarily a discrete change from one pitch to another; it is virtually impossible to produce a glissando or bending of a note in such instruments.
In accordance with a preferred form of the present invention, there is provided an elongated resonating chamber operatively associated with a sound-producing mouthpiece. The effective length of the chamber determines the pitch of the musical note produced by the instrument, as in the case of the conventional instruments referred to above. However, the present invention provides for an infinite or continuous variation of the effective length of the resonating chamber, under the control of the user, so that the instrument is capable of producing a glissando, bending of a note, and the like.
In the preferred form of the invention hereinafter illustrated and described hereinafter as applied to a flute, the elongated and resonating chamber is provided with a slot extending substantially the entire length of the chamber, together with means by which the user can digitally close as much as may be desired of the length of the slot from its inner end adjacent to the mouthpiece to the selected point of closure of the slot, spaced from the mouthpiece. More particularly, the closure means desirably takes the form of an elongated strip of flexible sheet material such as thin metal, having one of its ends fixed to the body of the instrument at the inner end of the slot adjacent to the mouthpiece, and means are provided at the outer end of the slot and the resonating chamber, by which to normally maintain the major portion of the length of the strip substantially spaced away from the slot, thereby leaving the slot open throughout virtually the entire length of the resonating chamber.
In playing the instrument in accordance with the present invention, the user digitally forces the closure strip into sealing relationship with the portions of the elongated chamber marginally adjacent to the slot, and in the preferred form of the invention, there may be resilient means such as sponge rubber or equivalent material, carried by the lower face of the strip, so that the digital actuation of the closure strip into contact with the instrument will create a virtually hermetically tight seal from the inner end of the strip to the point where the user applies downward force.
For certain applications, in order to enhance the purity of the tone produced by the instrument, it is desirable that the closure strip be so configured, as seen in transverse section in closed position, so that its inner surface does not interfere with the general shape of the interior surface of the tube wall. Thus, when the interior surface of the tube wall is generally cylindrical, interrupted of course by the slot as previously described, it is desirable that no portion of the closure strip, when depressed into closed or sealing position over the slot, lie within the imaginary extension of the cylindrical interior surface. It is even preferable that the inner surface of the closure strip, when the strip is depressed into closing position, be concave in in contour, having a radius of curvature equal to the radius of the interior cylindrical wall of the tube. With this configuration, the portion of the tube in which the slot is closed by the strip will have a continuous cylindrical inner wall, an arrangement which enhances the purity of tone produced by the instrument. A corresponding enhancement of tone purity may be achieved by an analogous construction of the interior surface of a key, constituting another form of invention, for selectively closing an opening--typically circular--in the wall of a wind instrument having a set of discrete spaced openings, as distinguished from the elongated slot first mentioned above. Thus the interior surface of such a key may be that of a portion of a concave cylinder having a radius of curvature equal to that of the interior wall of the tubular portion of the instrument itself.
It is accordingly the principal object of the present invention to disclose and provide a novel musical wind instrument. Another object of the invention is to provide such an instrument having a tube forming an elongated resonating chamber operatively associated with a mouthpiece, the chamber having formed therein an elongated slot throughout substantially all of its length, together with means including a flexible strip by which the user may digitally close the slot from its inner end to any desired point along the length of the strip. Other objects and purposes of the invention are to provide, in such an instrument, resilient means carried by the lower face of the strip whereby to enhance the sealing effectiveness of the closure strip; to provide, in such an instrument having a tube whose inner surface is a portion of a cylinder, a strip whose inner surface is concave having a radius of curvature substantially equal to the radius of said cylinder; to provide, in such an instrument, a strip having an upwardly concave transverse section whereby to enhance its longitudinal stiffness; and for other and additional purposes as will become clear from a reading of the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.